There's no place like home
by blubachat2
Summary: Some of us learn it the hard way, but there's no place like home. Life has changed since Harm went flying. Now he is back and has to deal with the changes at JAG, with new friendships and love.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: They belong to DPB, CBS and PARAMOUNT.**

**Thank****s**** to ****VisualI****D****entificationZeta for beta****-****reading.**

**I****'****m back and writing again. The doctors finally found the reason for my illness and I had surgery a while ago. Writing kept me sane all this time. **

**There**_**'**_**s no place like home**

**Prologue**

He had been gone for a while, nearly a year.

He had been flying.

Jets.

High up in the sky.

It felt wonderful to be up in the air again.

Still, something had been missing from his life.

Now he stood in front of the JAG Headquarter again.

He was coming home.

Harmon Rabb, Jr. was back in town.


	2. Chapter 1

Thank you for your reviews. For disclaimer and other stuff see part 1.

I am glad to be back and writing again.

**Chapter 1**

Things had been different since his return.

Mac wasn't talking to him, the Roberts hadn't invited him for lunch four Sundays in a row, and the Admiral was giving him looks, reminding him of the way a father would look at his son, in disappointment. His office had been given to Commander Brumby during his absence, so Harm had first been delegated to a former broom closet and now he had to share a small office with Loren Singer all part of his punishment for abandoning his friends.

Yet while sharing the office with Loren Singer he had learned a great deal about the newest member of the crew. Upon first meeting her he had gotten the impression of a cold, distant, by-the-book lawyer, but now he was getting the glimpses of a carefully hidden, completely different side to Loren, one no-one had ever seen before.

She kept a bag of chocolate-chip cookies in one of her desk drawers. Every Wednesday she took an extended lunch break and she would work overtime on Thursday, making up for the missed time.

Once he had seen a picture in one of her desk drawers, finger-painted by a small child, but before he could have gotten a good look at the picture Loren had entered the office. He had only read the name: Abby.

Today he tried again to get his friends back: the Roberts, Mac.

He needed them, without his friends JAG didn't feel like home, not anymore.

He was standing in the break room, getting a refill for his coffee when Mac and Brumby walked in.

"Mac. Brumby." he greeted them with a nod.

"Commander." Brumby answered.

Mac only looked at him.

His leaving still hurt and she was still angry over choosing his precious jets above their friendship, that's why she wanted him to suffer. She wanted him to feel what she had felt when her best friend had abandoned her.

Still, it wasn't fair, they'd been only ever friends and the way she was acting was like a scorned lover, not a mere friend. Even Jordan Parker, his former girlfriend hadn't taken it as hard as she had. Yet the fact that she had no right to feel nor act that way didn't matter to Mac, she only wanted Harm to hurt.


	3. Chapter 2

**For disclaimer and other stuff see part 1. Thanks for the reviews and I apologize for the long delay but my health took a turn for the worse. I am taking pain meds again. **

**Chapter 2**

Defeated he went back to his office. No, not his office, his and Loren Singer's office, the only person who still seemed to tolerate him. Still, he felt more welcomed in this small secluded room than anywhere else, even though Loren wasn't the talkative type. What they had was a comfortable silence.

"Lieutenant." he greeted the woman as he entered the office.

"Commander." she replied and then returned to work, typing furiously on her computer, every now and then glaring at a file nearby.

Harm settled on the small couch, trying to read a file, but the conversation he'd tried to have with Mac was still replaying over and over in his mind.

"_How about lunch today? Beltway Burgers?" he suggested, wanting to spend time with her again, time outside the courtroom. "Or somewhere else. My treat. Just like old times."_

"_Old times__.__" she said with bitterness in her voice, a bitterness directed at Harm._

"_Why not?" Harm asked, not knowing why she couldn't forgive him._

_Why couldn't they go back to be__ing__ friends again? He still didn't know why she wasn't happy for him __for having__ gotten a second chance at flying. _

_Without another word she turned to Mic Brumby "Didn't you offer to buy me lunch today?" _

_And then they were gone__, l__eaving him alone again._

On days like today it almost made him consider not going into work again tomorrow, but inevitably he would be back there as usual. The reality was that this job was really all he had. Some life, huh? His mind briefly considered the possibly of ending up alone, old and bitter, yet as always he chose not to dwell on it.


	4. Chapter 3

**For disclaimer and other stuff see part 1. Thanks for the reviews. I am very sorry for not updating sooner but I had a relapse a while ago. But I am confident that I am on the road to recovery, now and can update on a more regular basis. **

**My betareader pointed out to me that Hawaii is farther from La Jolla as Washington, but bear with me, I am not good at those things and let's pretend that La Jolla and Hawaii aren't that far apart.**

**Chapter 3**

Finally the day was over, the latest in a long line of trying days.

It seemed the only people nice to him were Tiner, Coates and Gunny; Loren Singer only seemed to tolerate him at best. Everyone else looked at him as if he was an outcast and maybe he was one.

He definitely felt like one.

Hm... on that thought... maybe he should become friends with Clayton Webb, they had a lot in common now.

He felt like he didn't belong at JAG anymore and it was tearing him apart. This had been home for so long he could hardly imagine anything else, now that he couldn't be a pilot full-time anymore.

Maybe it was time for a second change in career, but where should he go? Where should he transfer to?

The JAG office in Hawaii.

It was closer to his mother and Frank.

But not closer to home...

Which he didn't have anymore.

JAG was no longer his home, he was welcome there no more. Hell, he wasn't welcome even in his own damn office.

"Commander, I'm finished for the day. Can you lock up the office when you're done?" Loren Singers voice interrupted his thoughts.

He looked up at her, startled to realize it was already time to go home. Harm closed the file with a heavy sigh. Before he had returned to flying he had spent his evenings with the Roberts or with Mac. Now, he would go home to an empty apartment. Maybe he could phone his mother again, the third time in a row this week. Or he could go grocery shopping again. Anything to distract himself from the truth of his own loneliness and misery, stemming from it.

Harm stood up and started to gather his things, deciding enough was enough, he couldn't stall for much longer. He secured the office, noting Lieutenant Singer already walking towards the elevators, eager to get home.

As he followed Loren Singer he remembered the old times; times when Harriet Roberts had invited him to dinner with her and Bud, times when Mac had asked him to help her prepare for a case. Times that were now over and would never happen again.

"Plans for the evening, Lieutenant?" Harm tried to make small-talk with Loren Singer. He wasn't being nosy, he simply wanted to talk to another human being other than his mother without getting the feeling he had to apologize for returning to flying.

"Yes, sir."

"That's good."

Unlike him she seemed to have something to look forward to, but he didn't know anything about her. Maybe her plans had something to do with Abby. Maybe he should satisfy his curiosity and ask about this mysterious Abby. Maybe he could strike up a conversation.

In the end she left him standing in the lobby, alone, as he always seemed to end up these days.

Over the next couple of days, every time he tried starting a conversation with her, she either changed the topic or ignored him. Loren didn't want to talk about Abby. At JAG she was Lieutenant Singer, at home she was Loren Singer and Harm only needed to know the Lieutenant Singer. Not the person she really was.

There was nothing interesting about her, she had her friends, not many, but friends nevertheless. Friends with whom she shared laughter and joy, pain and tears.

Friends like Susan.

She and Susan had been best friends since birth; had grown up together, gone to school together and left their small town in the MidWest, full of plans for a great adventure. Plans that had ended up with Loren joining the NAVY and starting at JAG and Susan getting pregnant.

Susan.

Loren sighed as she remembered the last time she had seen her best friend.

Up until four months ago Susan had lived in D.C., trying to have a so-called normal life for once in her life. For Abby's sake.

Then suddenly, one day when Loren had decided to visit her friend, she'd found her gone. Only a letter pinned to the door: "Sorry, Lori, but I have places to see and to live my life as long as I'm young."

Susan's last words in over four, long months.

From one of her friend's neighbours she had learned Susan had packed up a few belongings and had intended to leave town with her child Abby, Loren's goddaughter, and Ruben, her newest boyfriend.

Loren had assumed Susan wouldn't be gone for long. Being on the road with a little girl wasn't easy and Ruben would kick her out sooner or later, as every single one of Susan's boyfriends had before.

Loren was right.

She received news about her friend Susan very soon, but a very unexpected news.


End file.
